Booker shortlist: Author interviews

The six books which made the Booker shortlist

Interviews broadcast by BBC Radio 4's Front Row with authors shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize - recorded before the announcement of Peter Carey's win - can be heard by clicking on the links below.

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Peter Carey

True History of the Kelly Gang

 "The biggest stretch was confining myself to a single perspective of narrative. Normally I like to have conflicting points of view and get to the truth through a kaleidoscopic view of reality."

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Ian McEwan

Atonement

 "I was a great believer in the notion that writers should have imaginations. No-one seems to want to believe that. Perhaps that grew out of the roots of my discontentment with the current writing at the time."

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David Mitchell

Number 9 Dream

 "I just love writing and that takes precedent in my life. It's that rather than a conscious urge to amputate myself from England that dictates my lifestyle."

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Ali Smith

Hotel World

 "I started with the structure of the hotel itself and that was a structure which is at once hierarchical socially and at the same time completely transient."

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